Introducing the Community Lounge Guides for Community Managers (solo episode)
The Community Lounge Season 3 Episode 7
(You can also watch this episode on YouTube.)
Welcome to a solo episode of the Community Lounge Podcast!
I’m launching the brand new Community Lounge Guides: A series of practical resources designed specifically for Community Managers: The first one is now available: “Becoming a Community Manager: Real Life Stories“
This guide explores the diverse paths people take into community management, organised into four categories: Volunteering, Transferable Skills, Study, and Community Creators.
It features stories from real-life Community Managers who were guests on the show, like Jarvs Tasker, Christian Jürgensen, Lyn Dang, and Erik Jakobsson.
Mentioned in the show:
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Transcription
Steve McLeod
Welcome to a solo episode of the Community Lounge Podcast. Today it’s just me, your host, Steve McLeod. I’m making this solo episode because I want to tell you about our brand new guides for community managers. We’re calling them the Community Lounge Guides. But first a request. If you are listening right now on Spotify, please give this podcast a five star rating and leave a comment. And if you’re watching on YouTube, please like the episode and leave a comment.
Why do I ask this? I know that many of you are creators, so you know what it’s like publishing content into what often seems like the abyss. And you’ll know that feeling of gratitude and reward you get when those likes and comments arrive. It helps with the motivation. It also helps a bit, I believe, with the algorithms. But for me, it is mostly about knowing that you are out there listening, watching, and enjoying.
So again, please give a five star rating on Spotify or a like on YouTube and in either case, write a comment. Thank you.
To repeat what I said in the intro, today I’m announcing our Community Lounge Guides for community managers. We’ve currently prepared three of these, the first of which we published last week and the next two will be published in the weeks ahead. The first one, the one that’s now ready is called ‘Becoming a Community Manager: Real Life Stories’.
Now I know this sounds like more of a guide for someone who is not yet a community manager, but I think you’ll also enjoy reading the different paths into the job, you’ll maybe see your own path reflected and you’ll probably get some new insights about how other people get into the industry. And the next time someone asks you, “Wow, you work as a community manager, how do I get a job like yours?” Well, you’ll have just the thing to answer their question with. The second guide to be published soon is on burnout, specifically how veteran community managers deal with burnout.
Now this is an important topic and I’ve been surprised by just how many of my guests have brought up this topic and have been wanting and ready to tell their own experiences with burnout. It’s going to be a good one I think, very practical. You won’t want to miss it. The third guide also nearing completion is a guide to your first week as a community manager: ‘What Actually Matters’.
This is a compilation of the wonderful advice my podcast guests have offered on this topic. It will be helpful not just for new community managers, but also for experienced community managers starting a new job. Don’t miss it. It’ll be a good one.
Now let me tell you why we are creating these guides. About 12 months ago, when I had just finished recording the first season of this podcast, it dawned on me that I was hearing some really helpful stuff from the guests. I got many great answers from people who have fascinating stories and tons of experience. And this content should not be left locked up in podcast form. It’s extremely helpful information and I believe it’s worth putting into a form of a guide.
It would help people who hadn’t listened to the podcast, it would be a helpful summary for those who did, and hopefully, it would also help people discover the podcast, creating a symbiotic relationship between the Community Lounge Podcast and the Community Lounge Guides. Why you might ask, has it taken 12 months to create the first guide? Good question. I couldn’t create these myself. I’m running a small business and I have family commitments and I simply don’t have the time to do it myself.
Furthermore, creating this type of guide is not something I think I have the right skills for. So I needed to do two things. First, I needed to create a really concrete idea of what I had in mind. And second, I needed to find the right person or people to help. Now, both of these tasks took a lot longer than I expected, and I had a couple of false starts along the way. What we’re presenting now is actually quite far removed from the original concept. I have to give a big shout-out here to Nicolas Mérouze who did the bulk of writing the first guides and did a great job.
Now, Nicolas is French and I can’t pronounce his name very well, something I’m very embarrassed about because I’ve worked so much with him. Fortunately, he made a short recording of his name said properly, which I’m going to play right now.
- Audio clip plays of Nicolas saying his name *
Nicolas did the hard work of finding common themes across 25 or so podcast episodes and extracting them into structured and coherent guides. I think he did a great job and I’ll have a link to Nicolas’s contact info in the show notes.
For the rest of this episode, I’m going to give you a taste of what you’ll find in the first guide, ‘Becoming a Community Manager’. Let me read a few brief excerpts from the guide as well as adding my own thoughts on it. Here we go.
The job title Community Manager didn’t exist 20 years ago. And while it’s now a recognized job, you’ll have a hard time finding a university that provides a Community Management degree. But you don’t need a degree or a certificate.
I’ve spent more than 20, 25 podcast episodes interviewing community managers about their careers. And I’ve heard all the possible paths to becoming a community manager. Winding detours, lucky breaks, and years of unpaid work that eventually pays off.
The paths cluster into four categories. First, the first path, ‘Volunteering’, AKA the unpaid apprenticeship. Most community managers I’ve talked to did the job for free before anyone paid them, before they even thought of becoming community managers. They just couldn’t help themselves. If you go and read the guide, don’t miss Jarvs Tasker’s story here.
Path number two, ‘Transferable Skills’, AKA the career pivot. Some community managers walked in through side doors. They already had skills that mapped onto community work, even if the connection wasn’t obvious at first. The most remarkable example in this section is Christian Jürgensen’s move from film producer to community manager.
Path three, ‘Study’, AKA the formal route. Yes, a handful of community managers do actually study their way into this career. They’re the exception, not the rule. In particular, you’ll want to read Lyn Dang’s story in this section.
And path four, ‘Community Creator’. Build it and they will come, as the expression goes. Some people don’t wait to be hired. They build communities around their own interests and the career follows. So make sure to check out Erik Jakobsson’s story in this section.
That brings me to the end of the episode. If you want to hear or read the whole article, the whole guide, please go ahead and do it. Go to our website and you will find the first guide, ‘Becoming a Community Manager’ linked in the show notes as well. And remember what I asked at the beginning of this episode. Please give the show a five star rating if you are listening on Spotify or a like if you’re watching on YouTube, and in either case, please leave a comment. I do appreciate it. Bye for now and see you in the next episode.